AI in Trades: Moving Beyond the Hype

Andy
Plus, we’ve got a few surprises for you today, including an interesting AI innovation we’ve come up with here at Lifestyle Tradie to help keep you ahead of the AI game in your business. Okay, let’s dive right into the episode.  

You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who want to lead with confidence, make more profit, and create a better lifestyle. 

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife, team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun?

Andy
Hell yeah! If you’re a tradie, you know as well as I do, you wouldn’t be You want to be able to build a house without a blueprint, right? So, why are you trying to build your trade business without one? Come and learn how to build and scale your business properly following a proven blueprint at our free one day live event, Lifestyle Tradie on Tour, where we lay out the exact steps we did to build our multi-million dollar plumbing business. We’ll also show you the systems we put in place that allowed me to get off the tools and only work in the business for two hours per week. This is not just a day of theory and fluff, this is a real strategy that we’ve done ourselves and what we’ve taught to thousands of other trade businesses. We’ll be in a city near you for just one day. So if you’re an ambitious plumber, electrician, landscaper, painter, builder, or any other trade who wants a blueprint to scale your business, then grab your free tickets. Go to lifestyletradie.com.au Because you don’t want to miss this.  

Ange
Hey, I don’t remember introducing this podcast. Did we do that already?

AI – Randy
Yeah, we already got the intro guys. Like don’t worry, Randy got you.

Ange
Uh, sorry, Randy. Who the hell’s Randy? Andy, what have you been up to? 

Andy
Well, I’ve had a lot on and we always preach about systemizing things. So I thought, I’d  systemize myself. 

Ange
I’m sorry, what? 

Andy
I made an AI clone of myself and I called it Randy. 

Ange
Oh my God. This is crazy, even for you. 

Andy
Don’t feel left out Ange, I made one for you as well. 

Ange
Oh God. What did you name her? 

Andy
What about Rangela? 

Ange
You’re telling me everything at the start of this podcast was completely AI? 

Andy
Yep, crazy, hey? It’s not completely perfect, but think how far this has come already, and maybe some of the real world applications that could really help in your business. 

Ange
All right, I suppose so. We don’t want to use this kind of thing to trick people, but if we could help customers with better service or more efficiency, Then I suppose we need to keep an open mind as to what we could use this thing for. 

Andy
Don’t worry, we are just having a bit of fun. But I’m keen to talk about ways AI  is actually changing the trade industry for real today.

Ange
Yeah, me too, but no more funny business, okay?

Andy
Ange I won’t make a promise I can’t keep, but let’s kick things off by addressing the massive hype that has been around the topic of AI this last 18 months. 

Ange
Well, you must be talking about when ChatGPT burst onto the scene and made AI mainstream and largely available to the public. And along with that came a lot of excitement, but to be honest, also a lot of fear. 

Andy
Yeah, the media didn’t help with all the doom and gloom predictions of AI taking over every person’s job. It really freaked a lot of people out. 

Ange
Well, change and new things that we don’t understand can be scary, but You Andy are naturally a positive and enthusiastic mindset around progress and technology, but to be honest, not everyone feels the same.

Andy
Yeah. I think it’s just because I’ve always been conscious of change around me and how it can help us if we adopt it into our lives. And just like whilst I was building our plumbing business at Dr Drip that we owned for 21 years, we were always on the front foot when it came to embracing technology, systems and new ways of doing things. And I guess this is why all this AI stuff is just so interesting to me. 

Ange
Well, the first thing we need to understand is that AI isn’t just a buzzword or a passing trend. It’s actually technology that’s here to stay and is improving at a rapid rate. Would you agree, Andy? 

Andy
Yes, absolutely. And I just remember back in the day, a tradie came up to me and said, this whole internet thing, it’s just a bloody fad. They just had no vision that anything, especially something to do with computers could really change their lives so much. 

Ange
Well, you know what? In the first year, it didn’t really change our lives that much, but it took time for the internet to be integrated into our daily lives. And now it’s how the world communicates.

Andy
And just like the internet, AI will take time too, and it will evolve, and someday we’ll look back and think, how did we operate without it? 

Ange
Totally.

Andy
And the difference between AI and the internet though, is I don’t think it’ll take as long to impact us all. 

Ange
And we want you to be on the front foot with this so you can stay ahead of your competition and not suffer because you’ve put your head in the sand.

Andy
Let me paint you a picture of where AI is headed. The AI industry is projected to grow 13 times  over the next seven years. 

Ange
Wow. 

Andy
That is massive growth, isn’t it? 

Ange
Yeah, it really is. And to be honest, it doesn’t stop there. By 2030, AI technology could generate a staggering 15. 7 trillion in revenue. 

Andy
15. 7 trillion dollars? That is bloody enormous. And if you’re wondering what that means for your business, consider this: by 2030, 20 percent of the businesses we see today may not even exist. And they’ll be replaced by those who have embraced AI and other advanced technologies. 

Ange
Well, by  2040, we’re looking at a workforce set that includes 1 billion AI robots. These aren’t just sci-fi fantasies. These are actually projections based on the current pace of technological advancement. 

Andy
The bottom line here is that times are changing really fast, and if you don’t wanna get left behind, you need to start thinking about how AI can fit into your business. It’s not about replacing your workforce with robots. It’s about enhancing your business capabilities and staying competitive in the market. 

Ange
The businesses that embrace AI will be the ones that thrive in the future. AI can help improve efficiency, boost productivity, and ultimately increase profitability. I mean, who doesn’t want that? 

Andy
To put this into perspective for everyone, think about how technology has already transformed all of our trade businesses over the years. You know, decades ago, we’re doing everything manually and we used to do our books in a ledger with a pencil and an eraser. 

Ange
You really are showing our age.  

Andy
Now we tell you to use zero and outsource that stuff now, right? But we used to write our jobs on these yellow job cards. And now I can’t even imagine running a trade business without a job management system.

Ange
Well, in Dr. Drip, we really were early adopters with this sort of thing. I remember implementing a product called Service CEO from AmeriCar in the early days, and we were one of the very first trade companies really using this sort of thing. But nowadays, our Lifestyle Tradie members use platforms like AroFlo or ServiceM8, BuildExact or Fergus, these types of things.

Andy
And although email existed back when we started our plumbing business, a great deal of our communication was still using a fax machine. Or sending through, sending things through the post.  

Ange
I know, talk about slow and clunky, right? 

Andy
Which means expensive as well. And I can’t even imagine not having an email these days, but even better, a CRM system with inbuilt AI capabilities.

Ange
It is true that AI will change the job landscape, but to be honest, it’s not all doom and gloom. According to the world economic forum, AI may replace 85 million jobs. But it’s also expected to create 97 million new jobs. So there will be a net gain in employment. 

Andy
The important thing is, you’ve got to stay adaptable and open to learning new skills. And the businesses that thrive will be those that can integrate AI into their business and leverage its capabilities to stay way ahead of the competition. 

Ange
Well, talking about staying ahead of the competition. Let’s touch on some of the new AI tools available right now. There are so many tools being launched every single day. And while this is super cool, it also poses a bit of a problem. 

Andy
What’s that? 

Ange
Well, you can go down these huge rabbit holes and instead of saving you time with new technology, you can get so lost and waste so much time on platforms and tools that aren’t even relevant or even perhaps ready for our industry.

Andy
Yeah. There’s a lot of cool technology coming through, but I’d definitely been a bit of a deer in headlights sometimes. I find all this stuff really exciting, but it’s also very, very overwhelming. And I’ve seen countless tradies that I know waste ridiculous time on AI when they haven’t even got their business set up the right way. Which is why we have our team at Lifestyle Tradie scouring the latest AI and wading through all the sh*t to find what’s relevant to us and our members. 

Ange
Well, at our last member event, we did a deep dive into using large language models like ChatGPT  and prompt engineering with formulas very specifically.

Andy
Yeah, I love ChatGPT and most people use it out there, but you’ve got to use it the right way and 95 percent of the people don’t. 

Ange
Well, the latest cool thing ChatGPT has done is to integrate the app Dolly within their interface. So imagine you need a specific image for a social media post or a marketing campaign. You just describe what you need and ChatGPT images create it for you. It’s like having a graphic designer on demand. 

Andy
Yeah, it’s very cool and perfect for those times when you need something unique and professional without the weight or cost of hiring a designer. 

Ange
Or paying for images in general. 

Andy
Exactly. Okay. The next tool I want to mention is called Luma AI Flythroughs. 

Ange
Oh, I absolutely love this. It’s quite the game changer for videoing projects. It was originally created for the real estate market. It uses AI to create stunning 3D flythroughs of say a house that’s up for sale. But this can totally be used in the trade industry. It’s clearly a visual app. Hmm. Andy, can you have a go at explaining why it’s so good? 

Andy
You know how when builders have finished renovating a home and they hire a videographer to film a walkthrough of a house or a landscaper after they’ve finished a backyard transformation? 

Ange
Yeah. 

Andy
They often need fancy equipment and things like a gimbal which helps stabilize the camera. Anyway, this app allows you to do these room walkthroughs and instead of using fancy equipment, it uses your phone. You open the app and it uses 3D AI technology to scan the room as you’re walking around the room. It then renders these super smooth videos that look really cool and looks like it’s been made from a professional.

Ange
Well, I’m thinking of how many of our members could find this so useful. We have this member, Mick, who does these incredible spiral staircases, and I can just imagine him walking towards the stairs. Then going up and down filming with this app and just showing off his craftsmanship with this amazing technology.

Andy
Yeah, I agree. Imagine the impact of video like that would have as opposed to just taking a photo. Yeah. I’m thinking of the electricians who have just fitted out. A new home with all their lighting or when another one of our members, Kieran was installing this gigantic fan into this one massive house. Imagine how cool a video of that would have been positioned in the room. 

Ange
Yeah, showing off your work on your website and your social media can have a huge impact on conversion. If I was stalking you and your business online and saw the work you do presented in a way that showcased the imagery of what I might get if I were your customer. Well, that’s so powerful. 

Andy
Yeah, agreed. But let’s switch tact a bit now. I bet you’ve all been secretly praying. I’d tell you the app we use to record my alter ego, Randy. 

Ange
Yeah, I’m sure they’re bursting at the seams to hear about it. 

Andy
Well, Randy was the result of two tools. Heygen and 11 labs, the voice part was done with 11 labs. It clones your voice to then say whatever you tell it to. And heygen is another tool that creates hyper realistic video clones. The video and the voice cloning is not perfect yet, but it’s pretty fun to play. 

Ange
Yeah. The real world application of this is creating a voice client of yourself that your team can use to respond to customers. The point is to ensure customers always feel like they’re getting personal service from you.

Andy
It’s like being in multiple places all at once. 

Ange
Well, imagine the efficiency. Your customers hear your voice, get personalized service, and you save time. I’ve actually heard of companies implementing this already. There’s a plumbing business who uses it for their out of hours dispatcher. So a customer calls at 2am and the AI voice asks questions, collects the details, and then contacts the on-call team who then responds. 

Andy
Oh God, I remember those days when you got woken by the phone in the middle of the night and raced to different jobs.

Ange
Andy, the whole house got woken up. 

Andy
Yeah, I know. It was sort of the worst, wasn’t it? So, Imagine that being implemented into your business, you still wake up to get up for the job with this AI voice technology. However, you will have all the correct information there and you just turn up to the job.

Ange
Well, there’s a whole world of AI tools designed to make our lives easier and our businesses more efficient. So the key is to find the ones that best fit your needs and start integrating them into your business. 

Andy
Okay, I’ve got another cool tool for a video app on your phone. Well, actually quite a few tools offer this now, but the technology is AI eye contact. One of the apps that uses this is called Captions app. 

Ange
Well, we initially downloaded this app to test adding captions to videos just using your phone, and then we found the eye contact feature. I think this could be really helpful for someone who struggles with where to look on camera.

Andy
Imagine taking a video of yourself for your business, but you need to read while you’re talking. Or you just get distracted looking at your good old looking face on screen instead of looking at the actual camera. 

Ange
You would too, right? 

Andy
Yeah, maybe. It’s not just me, I swear. Anyway, you literally push this button and it changes your video to show you looking at the camera. To be honest, it’s a bit freaky.

Ange
Well, this stuff is freaky, but it’s also fascinating. 

Andy
Agreed. So these are all super cool tools that can be implemented to a trade business right now, as long as they have their current business model right. But the question still remains, where is AI headed? Let’s talk about  AI agents.

Ange
Ooh, this is all sounding like the movie, The Matrix. Remember that agent, Mr. Anderson, who was chasing Keanu Reeves’s character? 

Andy
Don’t worry. It’s nothing like that. But at the moment, we are all using these new AI tools individually with different tasks. We prompt them to do each thing where the concept around AI agents is to create smart assistance that can handle a bunch of tasks on its own without you having to do each step.

Ange
My mind is starting to think of all the ways this could help in a trade business. Let’s say you’re a residential tradie like a plumber or electrician with a busy day ahead with multiple jobs. You can set up a workflow where the AI agent looks at your calendar, checks the location of your job, sends reminders to your customers about your arrival time, and so much more. So instead of you or someone else doing each of those individual tasks, an AI Agent does that whole workflow. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s right. Because they’ve been set up for your specific business and trained to do a bunch of different tasks. 

Ange
How exciting and seriously mind blowing. 

Andy
Yeah, it’s so cool. But now I wanted to move on to something we’ve been creating for our Lifestyle Tradie members and also implementing for ourselves.

Ange
Aha. Yes, let’s do that because we’ve come up with a solution that I believe is going to be extremely helpful based on some concerns that have arisen due to the popularity of AI. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s right. And a lot of businesses are using chatGPT to help them with things like coming up with social media posts and writing emails and so on. But the problem is I’ve heard of some staff, not deliberately mind you, putting sensitive company information into these AI programs. 

Ange
Well, that’s very concerning to be honest. And something else I heard was some businesses who outsource overseas realize that their staff were using chatGPT to write all of their social media posts. The quality of the work has dropped because the VA didn’t know how to use it properly. So everything started coming back super generic, not in the company voice, and everything was totally off brand. 

Andy
Now we’re all for staff using chatGPT and other tools to help come up with social media content or whatever. But without proper training and AI security policy and sub guidelines and how your company should embrace AI technology, you’re leaving yourself wide open for trouble. 

Ange
Well, AI is a bit like the wild, wild west right now. Some people are wizards at this stuff and just grasp it really easily while others are using AI tools and producing terrible results. So it’s actually a really big concern. We also found that people’s knowledge was either all in their head or scattered in files and not in one centralized place. So we saw the need for a system to centralize, guide, and implement AI into a trade business. 

Andy
Yeah. So we’ve created the Lifestyle Tradie AI Hub, and this AI Hub is something we’ve built for our members of Lifestyle Tradie. It’s not available publicly right now, but we wanted to share the concept with you because we think it’ll be super helpful, even if you create something basic to start with. 

Ange
Yeah. It’s crucial to have systems like this to foster an AI friendly culture within your business so that we all stay ahead of the game and move with the times.

Andy
You don’t want to be like those old guys back in the day who used to think the internet was a fad. 

Ange
Well, the Lifestyle Tradie AI Hub originally just started as a Word document where we held things like passwords, links to certain AI tools and a place to store detailed prompts for ChatGPT.  

Andy
We came up with the ChatGPT formula and all these clever prompts for everyone to follow. So all you need to do is copy and paste this stuff into the ChatGPT  and it spits out replies that are aligned with our brand. And sometimes we still need to tweak it, but AI technology is still evolving, but it saves a whole lot of time and keeps everything sounding like our brand voice. 

Ange
The other thing about this is to get your staff involved. Ask what they think about AI and ask them to bring any new AI tools or ideas to your toolbox meetings. 

Andy
Some may be good and guess what? Some may be sh*t, But the idea is about fostering that culture of AI and embracing the future. And then systemizing so you implement what suits your business and helps you be more efficient and more profitable.

Ange
I mean, that’s why we’re doing this, right? Not just so that we can look cool by saying we do all this new AI technology. At the end of the day, you’re in business to make money. So embrace the idea of utilizing new technology to make more of it. So that you can live the life you dream of.  

Andy
It’s Tradie Dilemma time and this is our Q&A segment where you let us know what you’re having trouble with in your business and we give you our best advice.

Ange
Okay, so today we have a question from Max in New South Wales and he writes, I’m really struggling to switch off from my business at the end of the day. It’s starting to affect me mentally and I just feel wired and tired all the time. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do? 

Andy
Oh, this is a great one, isn’t it? And I think most trade businesses find it hard to switch off. Business owners find it hard to switch off. But the thing I want to point here, Max, and I always come back to this is health and fitness is one of the most important parts in being any businessman or woman in business because you need to be feeling at your absolute best. So I’m all about going to the gym and doing training, eating good food, drinking alcohol, but to a minimum level, maybe just on a Saturday night and making sure I’m at my best. But the next thing I want to talk about is when you finish your day, how do you come home and walk into your house? And for me personally, these days, when I finish my day, I go straight to the gym and punch out an hour of weight. Now, when I do that, I straight away switch off from any of the working clutter in my brain that I’ve had, I’ve freshened up, I’m sore, I’m sweaty, I’m, you know, ready to go. And I walk out of there feeling amazing. And then when I get home, work doesn’t even come into play. Now, I know not everyone can have that scenario, but what I ask you is, Try and get the majority of your workload, especially the day to day grind stuff done when you’re out on site or during the day, if possible. And you need to have some type of mechanism that breaks you away from that business mindset in your head. So for some people that might be going to gym, for others that might be going home, grabbing the dog and going for a walk down the beach. For others, it’s going for a swim and doing a few laps or jumping in the ocean or the local dam, whatever it is that can break your psyche. It could have been jumping in a sauna or an ice bath, but I think there has to be a disconnect from business so that when you walk in the house, you’re really current and you’re there for your family and your kids, if you have kids. And then you can just relax and let that mind ease. Now, I know for myself, there’s often I’m working into the night, but I’m working on fun, exciting stuff. I’m not working on boring, mundane work. 

Ange
I think the point here is creating some habits in your life. So if you have a really good routine of how you start your day right and how you end your day right when you’re so specific about what that looks like to Andy’s point about, you know, what is it that makes you feel amazing? It could be something so simple. Then making sure you do that every single day is going to create this massive difference in your life. 

Andy
And I remember days when I’d had a Absolutely the worst days of my life and I drove home and pulled in the driveway and I just had a gutful and I used to try and go, okay, it’s no good walking in the house like this. What am I going to do? You know, and I used to have to put some nice music on and just try and unwind. Jump out the car and sometimes do some star jumps or just get the blood flowing, but something to break the cycle. When you’re feeling like you don’t want to be walking into the house feeling like that.

Ange
I hope that helps Max. Thanks for writing in and sharing your dilemma. Remember, if you have a question or a dilemma in your business, then reach out to us and let us know what we can help you with.  

Andy
Subscribe to The Tradie Show wherever you get your favorite podcasts.  Rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.